University of North Dakota

In about 40 minutes, we'll finish up the show with a Yote-centered conversation.

Head football coach Matt Vitzthum guiding his team to win No. 7 on Saturday over UND.

A big one in overtime.

Injury updates, keys, and the meaning of that interstate series rivalry that will be renewed on Saturday afternoon.

Moments ago, we got done talking about the Jacks and the Yotes from a neutral perspective.

Sioux Falls Live's Matt Zimmer joined us In the middle of hour number two, and now we tag out of hour number two and just about ready to turn things towards the Wednesday edition of the show by talking Yotes right now.

Usual slot for head coach Matt Bitstham, who has guided this team to a 7-2 start and an overtime win over UND last weekend, 26-23.

Coach, welcome back into the show.

Has played tackle.

Was an FCS All-American at University of North Dakota playing left tackle one year.

Played left tackle.

Played guard.

So I found a pretty rough set of clubs at a garage sale somewhere and started playing the next summer.

And it was great because this public course we'd play, it's owned by the University of North Dakota.

They charge us $32 for a season pass.

So we'd play 27 to 54 holes a day.

I just wasn't going anywhere with hockey after high school.

Like the high school I went to was the best hockey team.

school in the state you know they were they'd win every other year if not more and the university of north dakota is in my hometown well they're like alabama in football i mean they won seven national championships or something like that so hockey was is big in grand ford to north dakota so i played hockey all winter and golf all summer what i wish i state this to a lot of people i wish i had an orange whip when i was in high school because I could have went in the garage.

It may have been 20 below outside, but in the garage, it's only 10 degrees, so that ain't half bad in the winter.

So much history.

And you should see the arena that UND plays in.

Yeah.

It seats 18,000 people.

We went to Sally's for the pregame happy hour.

They had a whole display of UND NIL collective and a ton of green there.

And I just said, if the tables are turned, some bar in Grand Forks is getting burned down.

That's just point blank.

for this game but we always bring out Kurtiss Riggs each and every single week he's not only SDSU's TV analyst but of course a longtime local high school football television analyst and the director of the Sanford Sports Academy here in Sioux Falls where he has worked with some of the best players particularly quarterbacks In the region, some are playing for the Jackrabbits and Coyotes right now, and some are playing elsewhere, like Lincoln-Keene holds at Louisville.

And so we've got so much to get to from the game you were at, Jackson-Murray State on Saturday, the UND-USD one.

But, of course, we're going to spend a lot of time sinking our teeth into this matchup.

Jacob Knuth.

You got to play to win the game.

And sometimes playing to win the game means take those points that you know you can get that will keep you ahead and put more pressure on the other team to have to score a touchdown rather than a field goal.

You know, there's a very big fourth and one with a different decision in the USD-UND game late that we'll get to in a second.

There was also the Vikings and Colts early, and, of course, Minnesota goes on to win 16-10.

So I think I left off that I was at Bemidji State.

I then went on to earn my master's degree at the University of North Dakota.

and was part of a bridge program that was a federally funded grant program to double the number of American Indians with a PhD in nursing.

So it was a perfect fit for me.

We'll get it rolling with Matt Fitz them, the head coach of the university of South Dakota coyotes.

They were the ones that had a top 10 game this past Saturday and a thrilling one beating UND and overtime 26 to 23 came out roaring and barely hung on.

It was very exciting.

And if you haven't seen it yet, I encourage you to watch the postgame press conference from USD, particularly from Matt Vitzthum.

We get the ball right around midfield.

And I think both me and Tim were like, hey, let's go score.

And I think we threw three straight passes, which, again, if you know anything about UND's pass rush, that's their specialty.

That's what they're the best at in our league.